The Song of True Love in The Song of Achilles [book review]

Yurii Palaida
2 min readAug 26, 2022
Achilles, the most famous Greek warrior, Aristos Achaion, the best of the Greeks

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Published: August 26th, 2022

Author details

I knew nothing about Madeline Miller before approaching this book. But the work’s reputation made the need for trust in the author pretty unnecessary. It’s almost always the case when you’re just familiarising yourself with the work that is a huge hit, which The Song of Achilles is.

What is it about

The Song of Achilles is a free paraphrase of the legend of Achilles, the most famous Greek warrior, Aristos Achaion, the best of the Greeks. But it is narrated by Patroclus, the closest friend, companion, and love of his life.

It may feel weird and even just wrong to describe people and how they became famous because of any connection with other even more famous ones, but sometimes it’s absolutely normal.

We never know how it was in reality, but according to this book, Patroclus became famous for his sincere love for Achilles. And if he is lucky enough to be in love with one of the most famous Greeks in history, we’re fortunate to hear what true love might be like.

My impression

I liked this book a lot, and it’s one of those cases when it’s difficult to explain the reasoning.

  • It’s addictive, but most detectives easily draw you until the last page.
  • It’s a clever superstructure built upon the well-known myth, but we felt no shortage of such paraphrases in recent times.
  • It’s well-written. However, there were hundreds of word experts.

Maybe, it’s a mix of all, I don’t know. And more importantly, I probably don’t want to know. I feel deeply impressed by the story, and I’m glad that it was achieved without any unexpected turns, which means I’ll be happy to come back to this book any time, without a need to forget some key points.

Something similar

I couldn’t come up with any analogies. I didn’t read many historical fiction books, though I’m super excited about the Circe by Madeline Miller herself, and I’m sure I’ll pick it up quite soon.

Retrospective

I consider myself a slow thinker, so usually, I come up with additional thoughts about everything I work with. So, this section may or may not be filled later after the initial publication to provide more feedback.

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